This invention relates to means for efficiently burning a wide variety of fuels without the addition of auxiliary fuels or the need for special air handling equipment.
In light of the relatively strict standards presently being imposed by many government agencies, it is important to control the amount of pollution contained in stack gases when burning all types of fuels. One approach has been to place precipitators in the flue or stack of the burner and physically capture the pollution producing materials prior to their discharge into the atmosphere. This technique, however, generally involves complex and relatively expensive equipment. A less costly method of achieving clean effluents is to provide for thorough or complete combustion of the fuel in the burner before admitting exhaust gases to the stack.
Most recent devices for accomplishing complete combustion utilize a two step burning process wherein each step is carried out independently in a separate isolated chamber. Initially, in the first chamber, the raw fuel is generally burned using somewhat less than one hundred percent theoretical air in order to minimize flyash lofting. The combustible gases driven off during primary burning are collected and delivered to the second chamber where they are typically mixed with auxiliary fuel and air to insure complete burning. The mixture may also be acted upon by blowers and/or flow diverters to establish a turbulent flow to further insure that the high temperatures required for complete burning are maintained in this section.
Although the two step burning process affords many advantages over other known processes, its full potential has, heretofore, never been truly realized simply because the operation of the two sections involved have never been brought together to provide for a self-sustaining fully augmented system.